Handcrafting a vibrant Arab world

Month: December 2017

Eid is the Arabic word for holiday or festival and Milad Majid means Glorious Birth. All three words together can mean Festival of the Glorious Birth or Merry Christmas when said in the Arab world. And sometimes the three words are shortened to Milad Majid, since it’s common knowledge that to say it this time of year, you are not really talking about any other Eid.

To celebrate Milad Majid I created a printable card with a stocking that includes an arabesque design. Below is written Merry Christmas in Arabic: ميلاد مجيد.

ACraftyArab Arabic Christmas Card Printable

Click on the image above to print it out, cut along the light gray line with an xacto or blade cutter and color the stocking/words any way you’d like. Tip: To help my daughter keep track of the little shapes since she choose two colors, I added a little dot for her in each area.

You can also cover the top of the stocking with mini white pompoms like we used in our Eid puff banner.

Finally, you’ll need to fold the card in half. Don’t forget, your stocking is on the left side because the card will open left to right. Arabic is written in the opposite direction of English, therefore all cards, books and magazines also open the opposite direction.

Khatam is the Arabic word for eight point star. The shape is seen a lot in Arab and Islamic architecture and design.

I love using the khatam to teach children about Arab art because it’s such an easy shape to make. It is basically two square that are offset from each other, making the eight points of the star.

Other designs can be made inside the star, once lines are drawn in. My daughter and I decided to use one we found online to make a candle holder out of CD cases.

The Gallery Glass paint we used was sent to me as a Plaid Ambassador. I recieve products to try in my tutorials. This allows me the ability to share tips like: don’t shake the glass paint/lead bottles as this will cause bubbles. Try to keep the flow of paint at a steady stream. However, if you do end up with bubbles, don’t panic, just keep a sewing pin close by, to burst them.

Even though we applied electrical tape to our cube and have an electric candle, please be careful with this decor and provide adult supervision around children.

Supplies

We started by making sure our papers fit into the clear slots of the CD cases, first cutting down the Khatam design.

Then we cut down the vellum to fit into the other three clear CD cases.

Once we all the sizes done, we set the paper aside and took apart all 4 CD cases, breaking off the black tabs from only one. This will become the bottom of our cube.

Next we used the electrical tape to attached three of the clear CD cases to each other.

We attached the three clear sides to the black bottom to create our cube. Finally we added our vellum paper into the open slots.

Before we attached our final side, we laid it flat with the khatam paper design inside. We used the liquid lead paint to outlined our black lines.

It was easier to do the lines with the CD cover separate from the cube to be able to turn it around constantly. Take your time making the lines, practicing on a paper towel first.Once we were done with the outline, we let the case sit for 24 hours for the liquid lead paint to harden. The next day we attached our final side to our cube with electrical tape.

Next we laid the cube with the khatam up and started to fill in the design. It’s okay if the paint goes over the lines, you can wipe off any excess with a paper towel.

After we had colored the inside, we filled the entire outside with the clear glass paint.

Before we put away the bottle, we used the tip to add lines to create texture in the design.

Once our cube had dried for 24 hours, we added an electric candle.

We think the clear came out so fantastic, looking like real stained glass!

If you enjoyed making this khatam craft, stop by these other easy DIY tutorials

Hispanic and Latino American Muslims have one of the highest conversion rates into Islam right now.

Hispanic and Latino Americans are an ethno-linguistic group of citizens of the United States with origins in the countries of Latin America or the Iberian peninsula.

Today I talked to my daughters about the similarities between Islam and Latino culture while we made salsa. When we were done, we were getting ready to put it into our very used and loved salsa tray when I realized that the tray looked like a crescent moon.

So off we went, to the studio, to repurpose our salsa tray from drap to fab. If you do plan on putting food in yours, like we do ours, please use plastic wrap between the paint and your food.

We used the brushed metal paint I had received as a Plaid Ambassador, giving the moon and star that extra shiny look.

Supplies

First we placed the paper over the salsa opening and drew out it’s size. We then drew in a star to cover the entire circle.

Next we cut out the star.
Make sure your tray is very clean, and dry, before you start to paint.

We then placed our star into the circle and very carefully painted around the outline. We also used the curve of the bowl to outline a moon shape in the main opening. Once we finished the outlines, we also painted the outer rim in black.
We painted the star in gold and the moon in silver.

Let everything dry for 24 hours. This one was hard since our salsa was still in the kitchen!

Just a reminder the paint is not food safe, so please put some kind of napkin or plastic wrap between your chips and the tray. Please do not expose your salsa to the painted star and use a smaller, clear bowl or plastic wrap.